Painting Mama Rhobi
Why would an artist paint Rhobi Samwelly? Danish artist, Maria Torp, did just that! But who is Maria Torp and why painting Mama Rhobi?
Background of the artist Maria Torp
Maria was born in 1975 in Denmark, studied at the London College of Printing and graduated from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts in 2007. Torp exhibited both in Denmark and internationally. You can see some of Maria’s work here.
Maria’s paintings are hyper realistic, but with enormous sensitivity and vitality. I have never seen any of the paintings in real life, but when looking at them, I feel as if I can become one with the painting. I want to touch the faces, the people and engage them in a conversation.
Painting Rhobi
But wait, we are talking about Rhobi, and Maria painting Rhobi!
Why did Maria choose Rhobi as a subject to paint? This is all part of a 7 year long journey that took Maria to many countries across the world - Finland, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ukraine, China, Denmark, Argentina, South Africa, China, Greenland, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tanzania. The purpose of this collection, called Shaping a Pattern, was to explore, and bring to canvas, various aspects of gender inequality abuses across the world.
Gender Based Violence (including Female Genital Mutilation) is a crucial human rights issue and one that the artist wanted to explore further. And who better to provide Torp with the information than Rhobi Samwelly! (Rhobi Samwelly is the Founder and Director of Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania, a respected Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Gender Based Violence (GBV) activist.)
Maria met Rhobi at a screening of Giselle Portenier's film, In the Name Of Your Daughter in Copenhagen, early 2018. Rhobi was at this screening where Maria met her. There was an immediate bond between the two women, and Rhobi said yes to be painted.
Torp stayed at the Mugumu safe house for 16 days, learning about Female Genital Mutilation as an issue, getting to know Rhobi and the work that Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania is doing.
Rhobi is the subject in two of Maria’s paintings. The first one you will find in the collection, Selected Works. For those of you that have watched the documentary, In the Name of Your Daughter, the painting “Mugumu” will be familiar, the scene where Rhobi is helping a girl carry her bag into the Mugumu safe house.
But the pièce de résistance is a painting of Rhobi in the collection, Shaping a Pattern, a group of 11 paintings of 2x1.5 m in size. Maria worked for many years on this collection, painting a variety of people, from “grass roots activists to Deputy Presidents”, men and women of all walks of life. The themes addressed in the paintings engage with important societal issues, the essence of her subjects and the environments they inhabit. In Maria’s words – all twelve people are so extremely solution orientated.
Rhobi’s painting
The preparation of the canvas involved all the girls staying at the safe house during the period of 16 days in 2019. Three canvases were laid out on the ground, bowls of paint were prepared and the girls had the opportunity to walk and dance on it, leaving their footprints on the canvases.
Once the background was ready, Maria painted Rhobi, dressed in a white and black printed Kitenge outfit, sitting on a green chair, in the sun.
Link to February 6
What is the importance of telling you about this now? February 6 is the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation. FGM remains an issue that we all need to be aware of. Almost 4.5 million women and girls will be at risk of FGM during 2024, equating to 12,000 cases a day! We can’t ignore this horror, we need to continue to talk about the issue and support organizations working on the elimination of FGM.
And please, continue to support Rhobi and the girls!
Shaping a Pattern
Also, if you are in Denmark, make time to visit Shaping a Pattern. It will be visible until November 24, 2024 at the Trapholt Museum of Modern Art, Craft and Design.
Thank you very much to Maria Torp for your very generous sharing of content.